FROM THE DESK OF Alain Pineau: Time for an update!

CCA Bul­letin 31/11

Novem­ber 15, 2011

How time flies! This fall is par­tic­u­larly busy for all of us: I’m not not sure exactly why, but it seems that every­one is run­ning on an accel­er­at­ing tread­mill! So it is time again to keep you posted on a num­ber of cur­rent files.

The Com­pre­hen­sive Eco­nomic and Trade Agreement

Let’s start with the nego­ti­a­tions between Canada and the Euro­pean Com­mu­nity. I par­tic­i­pated in the brief­ing ses­sion orga­nized by the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and Inter­na­tional Trade on Octo­ber 28. The main issue con­cern­ing cul­ture is the fact that Euro­peans are pay­ing close atten­tion to Copy­right Bill C-11, now intro­duced by a major­ity gov­ern­ment. This was to be expected the adop­tion of the bill is cru­cial to the dis­cus­sion around intel­lec­tual prop­erty. While they are said to be gen­er­ally sat­is­fied with the bill, Euro­peans have made clear their con­cern with the broad excep­tions included in C-11, notably related to edu­ca­tion, which they would like to see. Copy­right may become a sticky point in the nego­ti­a­tion which at the end, may have to be resolved at the polit­i­cal level.

Exchanges on invest­ment rules have only just begun. Cana­dian chief nego­tia­tor Steve Ver­heul assured us that Canada has no inten­tion of sat­is­fy­ing Euro­pean requests for fur­ther lib­er­al­iza­tion of for­eign own­er­ship rules con­cern­ing telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions. This would mean that, given the high level of con­cen­tra­tion in Canada, broad­cast­ing would remain pro­tected. Lit­tle was said about the Cul­tural Exemp­tion except that the Euro­peans still find it too broad and would rather see it whit­tled down to the appro­pri­ate sec­tions in the agree­ment. We are told, how­ever, that Canada and Québec are stand­ing firm on this issue, which will likely be resolved at the very end of the negotiations.

Finally, we learned that the nego­ti­a­tions are now mov­ing to a new for­mat as nego­tia­tors enter into the most dif­fi­cult ter­ri­tory. They will hold con­tin­u­ous ses­sions in smaller groups, with a view to all get back together next Feb­ru­ary or March to take stock of the situation.

Cul­ture Statistics

On Novem­ber 3 and 4, I had the priv­i­lege once again of chair­ing Sta­tis­tics Canada’s National Advi­sory Com­mit­tee on Cul­ture Sta­tis­tics. The meet­ing started with a good humoured cel­e­bra­tion of the release on Octo­ber 24 of the Con­cep­tual Frame­work for Cul­ture Sta­tis­tics. A thor­ough update of the 2004 Frame­work, the new frame­work out­lines con­cepts and def­i­n­i­tions for mea­sur­ing cul­ture in ways more rel­e­vant to the cul­tural com­mu­nity. This involves defin­ing the bound­aries of what we con­sider cul­ture, as well as delin­eat­ing the domains and sub-domains that make up the sec­tor. As such, it is the cor­ner­stone of a full revamp­ing of cul­ture sta­tis­tics and it pro­pels Canada once again as inter­na­tional leader in this field. I am glad to high­light the fact that the Frame­work was writ­ten by Marla Walt­man Daschko, whom the CCA is proud to count as a mem­ber (I’m also proud to report that the CCA’s con­tri­bu­tion is men­tioned in the acknowledgements).

The main topic up for dis­cus­sion was the redesign of the Sur­veys on Gov­ern­ment Expen­di­tures on Cul­ture. The first step of this redesign is a fea­si­bil­ity study now funded through Sta­tis­tics Canada’s Long Term Plan­ning Project. Based on the new con­cep­tual frame­work, the review’s objec­tive is to reduce data gaps and increase both rel­e­vance and time­li­ness of the infor­ma­tion gath­ered. The main issues con­cerned lot­tery funds, libraries, tax cred­its and tax exemp­tions, munic­i­pal data and arts edu­ca­tion. Given the increas­ing role that munic­i­pal­i­ties play with regards to cul­ture, those data were iden­ti­fied as of par­tic­u­lar inter­est. Unfor­tu­nately, they are also the most dif­fi­cult and expen­sive to collect!

Data from Sur­veys on Gov­ern­ment Expen­di­tures on Cul­ture will even­tu­ally be input into the Cul­ture Satel­lite Account, now in the third of four years of devel­op­ment, thanks to the close coop­er­a­tion of the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage and Sta­tis­tics Canada. Once com­pleted, the Cul­ture Satel­lite Account will pro­vide an invalu­able tool to the Cana­dian cul­tural sec­tor. It will allow the mea­sure­ment of the eco­nomic impact of cul­ture with sig­nif­i­cantly greater pre­ci­sion allow us to com­pare that impact to that of other indus­tries and of other countries.

The future of the CCA

As men­tioned in my last report, we are extremely busy with the devel­op­ment of a new busi­ness model for the CCA which would see us become finan­cially inde­pen­dent from recur­rent finan­cial sup­port from the fed­eral gov­ern­ment over the next three years. We will be hold­ing an in-depth con­sul­ta­tion in Mon­tréal tomor­row, in Toronto next week and in Ottawa at the begin­ning of December.

Input will also be solicited from mem­bers and stake­hold­ers in all provinces as well. On Jan­u­ary 9, I will begin a tour of the coun­try which will take me from Vic­to­ria to St. John’s by the end of Feb­ru­ary. Keep an eye out for your invi­ta­tion to par­tic­i­pate in this impor­tant ini­tia­tive which will lead to the re-invention of the largest and old­est cul­tural orga­ni­za­tion in Canada. We need your input and your sup­port to carry on the unique con­tri­bu­tion we make to the vital­ity of the Cana­dian arts, cul­ture and her­itage sector.